The invention concerns a round baler, a baler that can produce cylindrical bales, with a baling chamber having a conveyor provided at the bottom thereof on which the bale can be supported and a collector or pick-up for elevating crop from the ground and delivering it to the conveyor.
Round balers are used particularly in agriculture to collect crop deposited on the ground and to compress it into bales. During the baling process the bales are compacted relatively tightly in their outer region and are forced against the wall surrounding the baling chamber due to their weight. This is independent of the question whether the baler is a so-called soft-core or a hard-core baler.
Round balers of this type are known from DE-OS-34 19 535, published Nov. 28, 1985, DE-OS-35 01 062, published Jul. 18, 1985 and GB-A-2 227 711, published Aug. 8, 1990.
From the last named publication it is further known that one of the rollers of the conveyor provided at the bottom, upon which the bale rests during its during its formation, should be shaped as an oval, so that the bale is constantly raised by the roller and remains in this raised position due to the friction at the walls. Thereby a larger inlet area is formed between the oval roller and the inlet opening in a constantly recurring sequence through which the crop can enter the baling chamber without any resistance.
Such an out-of-round rotating roller imposes very high requirements on the strength of its bearings and an enlarged inlet gap develops only when the bale remains in its elevated position by reason of its friction against the wall and the rigidity of its surface.
The problem underlying the invention is seen as that of proposing a round baler in which the crop can enter the baling chamber at all times without any obstacles.